Creating Herbal Legacies

Learn how to create herbal legacies!
Learn how to create a business for the future and for your family's future!

Heart of Herbs Herbal School 
The Heart of Herbs Podcast with Demetria Clark! 🌿 Tune in for herbal wisdom & wellness tips!

Welcome to the Heart of Herbs Herbal School Podcast, www.heartofherbs.com where we explore the world of herbal remedies and natural health solutions. Before we dive into today's episode, If you want to enroll, use code PODCAST to save 20%.

The content provided in this podcast is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition. It is always recommended to consult with a qualified healthcare professional

Transcript

Speaker 1  0:21  
Okay, we'll start in a few minutes, but I'm just gonna mute it for a second see who else comes in?

Speaker 1  0:45  
All right, do we have ever, buddy? No, I think so, so far, we got six people. So I'm going to let you guys know, this is a disclaimer. I found someone through a dog in our yard, who was blind and about nine pounds. I posted about it on Facebook a few weeks ago. But he's on my lap right now is a little bit of separation anxiety. So if you hear a noise, that's him. I figured I would just warn everyone. So everyone can go in and mute their mics. And unless you're talking, how's that sound? Right. Okay, cool. So, this is about herbal legacies. And there's many different ways to think about your herbal legacy. And so what were talking about tonight, and what you will participate in tonight, so this kind of be like something that everyone's going to kind of participate in, is what you see yourself in what you see your herbal legacy pathway, path to the future being because the reality is, is that when you start your herbal path, it's about whatever it's about, like keeping your family healthy, or having a job or any of those kinds of things. And then, like with any life long work, it starts to transform itself and starts to become a Legacy product, it starts to become something like to hear him snoring, you start to think about things in a different way. So I'll share a little bit with you guys on what I'm thinking about my herbal legacy being and how I want to use my herbal career, and use what I've learned and created in the herbal world, to be something that can become intergenerational. So for me, my herbal legacy is creating content, like my books that my grandchildren should be able to get royalties from. So that's kind of a cool thing with with like books and albums and stuff like that, when you make them your family can reap the benefit of them even after your death. So it's like 100 years after you die

Unknown Speaker  3:25  
every time every time

Speaker 1  3:27  
as we tell them. So, already know what you're gonna say.

Unknown Speaker  3:35  
You'll say some about like, you don't like her voice,

Speaker 1  3:38  
it's too I can hear you. So I'm just gonna mute you Adele. Um, so, um, so the thing is, is that we can, we can create something for the future. And so, as I was saying before, that my my legacy right now, is that I am creating products that my children will be able to reap the financial benefits of later. And that's something that people don't really talk about. And it's something that is definitely part of our herbal journey. And part of the reason why I bring that up is we're talking a lot about in our country, we're talking a lot about intergenerational wealth. We're talking a lot about wanting to change the laws about all that kind of stuff. So that's like, that's kind of like how I think about the book aspect. The other part of me is the property that I own as an herbalist and so that's something that I am being a steward for, and hopefully maybe one day it'll be something that my children can either decide to be stewards for, or or decide to, you know, pass it on. But when we Think about legacies and the things that we do, it can be a lot of different things. So if you're creating product, if you are working in a way that is going to create generational income for your family, or or you can take your herbal work, and invest in things that are going to allow you to have generational and intergenerational wealth, that's also an herbal legacy, even if it doesn't have a picture of a plant on the front. And we don't talk enough in the herbal world about making a sustainable future for ourselves and for our families with our career. And a lot of people talk about it and a lot of different careers, and we just haven't gotten there with herbalism. So years ago, when I started talking about this kind of stuff, I was like the forehead, a dragon in the room, you know, people just were like, you're bananas. And it became really, okay, in order for me to do this. And to really tell people, Hey, this is what we need to do this, how to become a practice what you preach kind of situation. So I've used my herbal work to assist me and also creating things that helped my family in different ways. So I'd love to hear from you guys, what you would like from your herbal work. And then maybe we can briefly like with each one who's interested in sharing, kind of say, Okay, so like, let's look at this, or let's look at that, and kind of like talk about pathways, and maybe strategies that would help make this seem less of a mountain to climb. I think part of the reason why I was so successful with a lot of this stuff is that it just didn't occur to me that I couldn't climb the mountain. I'm kind of goofy that way. I don't know if it's that I'm fearless that way or dumb. It just, I was just like, oh, this is what I have to do. Right? And so that's what I did. So does anyone want to share? Or ask a question about that, or

Speaker 2  7:01  
I was thinking about starting something like an herb guarding, but for children, you know, to where they can come and take classes and learn about the herbs. But I don't know, if that would be actually a really good idea or just something that is like a passing thought. I

Speaker 1  7:23  
think that's an, I think that's an awesome idea. I think it can be something where you can actually teach classes and use it as a stream of income. Or it could be something that you should, that you could implement with like a city kind of program or a community garden kind of program where you let the community fund it and come up with the things and then you work as a director, or directing the programs, I think that there's a lot of things you can do with that. So I mean, it just mute you. I think someone was in their car. But so the thing is with that, and obviously unmute yourself, when you when you want to ask a question or something, if I'm if I mute you, that just means there's a lot of background noise. So the reality is, is with something like that, I definitely feel like you can you can do something with that. I mean, it could be a therapy garden, it could be a garden where you can make it accessible for differently abled children, you know, by having raised beds, I mean, there's all kinds of things that you can do with something like that. So I think that's awesome. I think it's a gorgeous idea. I'm going to try to make sure I have the chat open so I can see if people type things I can also do that. Okay, Christina Abraham says, I agree with everything you said, if I knew how to make it sustainable, I dive in with both the I think about it all the time about doing this work when I'm older and having land for my children to cultivate. I'm totally on board with that. I look, land ownership is super expensive. And it's super, super scary, right? It's really sometimes hard to like get behind the whole like buying a piece of land and then watching it like build itself from the ground up. But I have a son who's really interested in doing something like that with some kind of sustainable farming practices. And I can see him stumble with what comes next after you find the land. And so I do know that that can be really hard. So I totally agree with you, Christina. But I if I know anything about you, if anything's if anyone's going to make it happen, it's going to be you. So I definitely think like so if you find it. In theory, say you found your piece of land, I would write down 10 to 15 things that you could do with the land that could help generate income for the land. So it could be like if you have So say, I don't know, say it was 50 acres, and you knew that you weren't going to cultivate 50 acres and you knew in some of it was pasture, you could rent out your pasture to someone who's doing sustainable grass fed farming as a stream of income to like help pay for the land. Or you could look at building a school, or you could look at, you know, doing larger scale plant propagation or endangered plant. So if it's really hilly, you could look at growing like goldenseal, or ginseng or something like that, on land that maybe others don't always see the cultivation value. Does that make sense? Yes, Jamie, nature has performed better in the barber studio? Um, I mean, I'm you, Cynthia, because I think I'm picking up the TV. Um, does. Does anyone else have a question or want to say anything about what their their their dreams are in reference to this?

Speaker 1  11:08  
No. Does anyone want to me to just kind of talk about different strategies I've done to try to ensure my herbal future? Yes, please. Okay, so I'm going to tell you some some things I really screwed up on. So I didn't start investing in retirement sooner. I should have done, I should have done a portion of every dollar I made towards a retirement or an investment account. Nobody told me, nobody shared that with me. I didn't come from wealth. So I didn't realize that in order to have wealth, you have to create wealth and invest? Well, I just thought you made money. So when I was really young, I wish that someone had said, you know, for every dollar you make put 10 cents away, then put, you know, then put the tax means money away, right? Because I would just be like, I thought like, you know, okay, I'm paying a ton of money in taxes, I'm winning, you know, because that means if the more you're paying tax, the more you're making, you know, so you're like, you're winning, right? Well, I didn't invest enough when I was younger. And so that's something like I've been that part of my herbal legacy is telling you guys, to protect yourself, invest in yourself from the beginning, get a solo 401k If you have a business or SAP, talk to a financial advisor, they'll you know, they'll do this stuff for free, they'll give you the advice, you know, some of the advice for free on what you should set up or talk to your accountant, because you can write those expenses off. So you can write off and you know, they have special forms that they fill out. So if you put you know, 35,000 away a year for your retirement, which is basically the self employed like cap, depending upon what you make, that's probably this is probably good middle of the line number. And of course, I'm not a financial adviser, fiduciary, disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer, I'm just sharing with you how I wish I had done things better. But they will tell you like basically what you can, the amount you can put in and if you try each year, you know, maybe your first two years, you're not going to get there. But if you keep trying and it becomes a habit, you don't miss the money. So that was something I really wish someone had shared with me and I knew all of these herbalist and I thought, Oh, wow, I was, you know, so cool. Like, they're still working. And then I was like, dang, they're still working in their ad. And I'm like, this is this is wrong, like this is not I mean, I get it, you do your love for as long as you want, like, but you shouldn't have to, because otherwise you can't afford to eat because there is no, there's no herbalist pension plan, right? There's no herbalist retirement fund. So we have to create this ourselves. And the problem is, is now we're all expected to be financial advisors, right? We're supposed to understand how all this stuff works all the sudden, boom, you're just supposed to now the reality is, is just, you know, there's lots of different people out there who will help you. There's lots of different people who can guide you in the right direction. So from the very beginning, when you set up your business, when you get your business banking account, and your first dollar comes in, you figure out what percentage you want to try to put into your retirement. And try, try try eventually the trying leads to more and more and more success. And eventually you're going to be maxing these things as you go along. So that was that was one of the things that I wish someone had shared with me. I wish that we were more transparent about money in the herbal community. And we talked about things like wages and income and sustainability with each other in a more honest and open way. I think that's one of the best ways for our legacies to continue. Because if you can't make a sustainable living wage and you can't take care of your family doing this work, this work will disappear. There's reasons why if you look Throughout history, this work kind of faded away, just because the value of was taken away from it. I remember when I first wanted to, like charge for the things that I did, I was literally told you shouldn't do that. It's healing stuff and you in you love it. And it's not okay for you to charge money for it. I mean, like, some people were really cruel and said, really kind of horrible things. And I was so young, I like let it sink into my brain for a while before it's like, I'll forget this. I can't, you know, I can't literally like eat your happiness. I can't pay my bills with you're like, Oh, thanks, man. That was so groovy. I can't do that. So having that having said that, the, the changing the way we talk about money in our community is going to help preserve our legacies. It's going to make our businesses businesses that we can pass on to our family, like the dude who owns herb farm, the big huge like company or Gaia. They've got terrible legacy. They're leaving their business potentially to their children or their family. You don't have to have a multi gazillion dollar company to leave a sustainable company to to your family. So Alinea says family expects us for free and it's hard to say no. You know what, just practice it. Just say no, tell them no. I mean, my brother's a homebuilder. I would never ever, ever dream of asking him to do something for free, right? We have all of these other people in our lives, who who work and contribute to their community, and do all different kinds of work. And we, we never asked them to do something for free. And if you're asking people to do stuff for free, that's something that you need to sit back and think about with yourself. Like why? If I want people to value my work, I need to value other people's work. So I would just tell them now I'm sorry. So a long, long time ago, like Goodness gracious a long time ago, back when the first part of my age began with a to my mother was always asking me for like free little gift baskets for like all of her friends. But all of her friends were buying for me because guess what they didn't have to. They were getting it for free. My mom was like, basically, like, every time I came to her house, she wanted like, a 30 to $50 gift basket and more than one. And I was like, I can't do this after a while. And I got really offended. And I told her, I said, Hey, this isn't okay. Like, I don't ask you to, you know, I don't even ask you to like, watch my kids for free, right? Like, this isn't cool. And this is really expensive. And when I laid it out to her, like, look, this is what I would be making. If I sold this. This is a resource. And she was she was very, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize that. Because sometimes I think family things like when we're sitting there making something we're making, like a million of them at a time. And we're all million of them are sold except for the three we give to them. They don't realize that that product that we sell for, you know, 20 or 40, or even $60, right? When they ask us for one, every week or every month, it's like 2040 6080, that it adds up and that it's actually a loss for us. So that's what I'm saying about transparency with finances and money. I'm not saying you have to tell everybody what you make. But you can say to someone, when I give this to you, this means I have to be willing to not make this money. And I think most of the people who love us start to understand that. I think another thing with transparency with money, you need to have that one person in your life that you can talk to about money and your legacy around your business. They do not need to be someone who's in the same business as you, but they should be someone who's in business, and someone who's either as successful or more successful than you. So so many times in money and business and finance kind of like situations. We're asking advice from people who don't have a frickin clue what we do. They don't understand our money process at all. And so why are we accepting advice from people

Speaker 1  19:33  
who like really shouldn't be given unto us because they're older than us. They always wanted to run a business so they know how to run a business. We all have that person in our life. I had a person in my life and we'll say he was an uncle. He is an uncle. And he'd always be like, hey, you know what you got to do? And I'd be like, what he'd been telling me all this stuff, and I'd be like, nothing. First of all, none of that applies to me. And second of all, If you don't really hold a job long term, so and you've never run a business, I'm not sure should be getting my financial advice from you. And I finally found a really nice way to say that and it stopped. So I will share with you that the person that I do my money head butting with and like really talking with and measuring things out, is my brother who owns a construction company. Now, what is a construction company owner who builds like these big, you know, houses in New England up in them, you know, the ski, ski country have to do with this herbalist who, who is in Virginia? How can we have money conversations about what to do next? And it's because we're talking business and we're talking money, the industry doesn't necessarily matter. He's not giving me herbal advice. I'm not telling him how to build a house. But we're talking about strategy and implementation. And one of the reasons that I love working with him because we've been doing this this kind of like every now and then this kind of informal kind of vent about or what are you going to do? What do you do about this kind of sessions for about 10 years, and my business is pretty much you know, it mines does the, you know, the kind of slow growth, you know, just good growth, nothing, nothing to write home about. And then I've watched his go up through the stratosphere. But as he's going through the stratosphere, he's learning stuff that I don't know. And he's sharing that information with me. And we have a trusting and safe relationship where we can talk about the next steps, you need to have someone who can do your next steps with, you need to have someone you trust, you don't, you don't need to be talking to someone who's gonna tell everybody your money business. That's what I don't mean, I don't mean that about transparency about money. I mean, if Hey, if you want to tell everyone how much money you make, that's totally up to you. But the person that you are implementing, and strategizing with, or using as a sounding board or someplace to just bounce ideas off of, they need to be someone that you can trust and hopefully someone who's more successful than you. Now you can enter into a mentorship kind of relationship with money and stuff like that. And we do have a program for that. But overall, if you're working with someone in your community, or just someone that you trust, and they can be a friend who's in a successful business, but it's just really having that person that you can do that with and that person is often not going to be your husband or your wife or your partner significant other whatever. Because they're too closely invested. So when you are talking about abstract things sometimes so I know for myself very early on, I realized that one of the biggest things what for my husband was his he thought I'd be upset if I failed. He didn't want me to he didn't want my feelings to be hurt. He didn't want. He didn't want me to be sad, basically, right? He loved me so much. He didn't want me to, like follow over myself. And finally, I don't remember it was a long time ago, I had some conversation. I was like, well, what's the worst is gonna happen, it's gonna fail. And then when we realized, yeah, that's the worst is gonna happen, it's gonna fail. We didn't have, we didn't have anybody. You know, it wasn't like, you know, people weren't going to be fed or something like that, if it didn't happen. So I think that's part of the thing too, is to realize and understand that sometimes the people who love you the most aren't always the best people to bounce the financial stuff off of. So that was that's another thing that I think is really important when it comes to creating an herbal legacy. Because we can't sustain our work on our own. We can't be an island on our own. Does that make sense? Okay, so would the Small Business Association be a good place to go for this kind of how? Absolutely. So your small business administration score.org, joining your local chamber of commerce, or just going to some of the events, you may find someone who's like a really good fit. Score is a great place because scores retired executives who volunteer to help entrepreneurs, so it doesn't cost you anything. And sometimes, you know, you are going to be working with like people who, you know, just have so much knowledge and skill, and they're not going to tell you how to do things. They're going to tell you how to look at things and to figure things out, and it'll help you with learning to make the best decisions for your business and your later legacy. So does anybody else have like an idea of like, or want to share like a thought or a way to maybe implement expanding on their idea of what their herbal legacy is going to be?

Speaker 3  24:58  
No, I'm sorry, I just got in. So I'm not sure if you talked about this. But for me, I know a big thing is like collaboration, just a lot of collaboration with a lot of other herbalists and like minded people.

Speaker 1  25:15  
Yeah, so that's that's kind of what we're saying, but totally are not. No, that's not like what we're saying at all. But that's not clear. I should be clear. We were too. So I think that's a really good thing to, to address. Next, we were kind of talking about having someone that you can talk about the nitty gritty with it isn't in your business, necessarily. Having someone in your business is okay, but you don't want to have an adversarial competitive relationship when you get down to some of the nitty gritty. The other thing with collaboration, I think that's really important. I did more collaborative work early on. Part of the reason why I don't collaborate as much as I should. And this is something you can do better than me, is I'm actually I'm pretty shy. And I think people often think when they meet me face to face that I'm kind of a snob, I just, I either we resort to being like really funny, or like really kind of closed off and shy. And so I think sometimes people used to think like, oh, that Demetria Clark, she's kind of a snob, you know, and it wasn't that I was a snob, I just, I just I like to sometimes and I know you guys are like, Yeah, whatever your taka source, we're x, but you guys are family. So it's different. But like, I think sometimes that, you know, people would be like, yeah, she just kind of like sits there. And she doesn't really say much. And then she'll ask some like, really weird question. So I kind of like I allowed my I don't know, I guess nowadays we'd say like social anxiety or something like that, to to limit some of my collaborations. I will say though, some of my best collaborations that have been the most inspiring have not actually been in the herbal world for the herbal for my herbal work. So you can collaborate with different kinds of artisans and businesses and make those kind of connections, I think the most important thing to remember with collaboration is that your collaborates should inspire you, they should make you want to be better. So I know at one point, I did like a huge leap and growth in my business, because I was connecting and not necessarily collaborating with. But having well brain collaboration, I guess, with someone who was a jewelry designer. So even though the two things were completely different, my conversations with this person made my brain work better. So I think that definitely always finding those people that you can collaborate with is really important, especially ones that make you understand what you can do better in your, you know, your environment, if that makes sense. To that answer your question, or like, speak to what you were saying.

Speaker 3  28:26  
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think, like I said, I apologize for coming in late. Fine, you're fine. Oh, and people go in and

Speaker 1  28:32  
out during these things. People worry about. Someone's kids start screaming and then they're gone. And then they're back. 10 minutes later. Yeah, yeah. Well, I

Speaker 3  28:39  
think you I think you actually nailed it because I said like, or other herbalist and like minded people, but the truth is, is that most of my collaborations are with people that are not herbalist but are just in like, energy healing or sound healing. And we do these little like, you know, like, little, like, really yoga retreat things. And they're really, for me, personally, because I'm, I mean, I'm not shy, but I am. It's hard to explain. I'm an I'm an extroverted introvert, I guess you could say, Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  29:10  
I think I can, I can understand that. And,

Speaker 3  29:13  
and so they've really, like bring brought me out of my shell. And every time I go to them, I learned so much, and, you know, just in the way that they teach, and they make me better. And so it has, like the collaboration part for me has been a huge piece of really just getting me out there and building up my confidence to absolutely

Speaker 1  29:33  
I can I can understand that. And then to that also, I think like sometimes we get so inspired by other people that we kind of like almost emulate them, right and maybe too much right. And so it's also good to be working with people who will help you keep you in check. You know, like who Yeah, who will help you stay true to your voice? Like years and years ago, some business kind of expert was like, you know, you'd make a lot more money if you put your kids all over your stuff. Like, you know, this was before, people were doing it don't know, Instagram reels and stuff with their kids like that. And for me, that never would have worked. I mean, like, no amount of money could have made that work for me, because of the way my brain is wired. Not that I think it's wrong when people do that, right. People, you know, lots of people responsibly, like, you know, have pictures of their kids and stuff in their seed catalog. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But for me, and knowing, like the way my kids were wired, like, that was just not going to happen. You know, like, every every picture, they'd be Scallan. Like, really? Like, would there Billy Idol lip up or something? Right. So the reality is, is that I think that even when it's hard, stay true to yourself and collaborate with people who will expect you to do that, and raise you to that level. So you can feel like with every step that you're taking, that you are fully able to be responsible for the work that you're doing. And I think that when it comes to building a business that's going to last a lifetime, that I think, or maybe multiple lifetimes, I think that that's going to be easier for you to then train your next person or for your children to step in the role of because there isn't a mom who runs the business. And then a mom, I mean, the, you know, obviously, you have your different personality, when my kids call, I don't go hardware observer school teacher Clark speaking, I'm gonna help you. But they you know, there is there is this thing where it is something that you can, you can pass it on, because they already know who you are, and you're already being true to. So I think that's something like to think about to and we also, for people who came in late, you may want to list the beginning, we did talk a little about about like retirement and stuff like that. So I think that's also something with with creating a legacy, I think the thing is, is that a lot of herbal schools don't have a long lifespan, or they have a very long lifespan. A lot of herbal businesses come in and out, right? A lot of times when things get tough, if we don't have a good framework around us, and I'm not talking about there's times when, you know, we were like, Oh, all right, are we gonna be able to do this, because this is, you know, this has taken a lot of time, a lot of, you know, whatever, right. And so, having those people around you that believe in you, and that you can trust and that you can go over things and collaborate with and work with, and be inspired by is going to help you get through the harder times, or the more, you know, the confusing times or you know, or, you know, you goof something out, you just make a real, you know, butthead of yourself and you have to come back from that, and, you know, things, things always, you know, the world happens, right? You know, unfortunately, the world is always going on around us. And we can't have our nice little herbal bubble that we just protecting in keep safe. But that was will get you through that, like, and having if you have a partner, make sure they understand your commitment to the work. Because, you know, look, I can't even I can't even tell you how many businesses fail in the first year, I think it's something like 70 or 80%, right. And most businesses don't really make a big profit. For three years, that can be a long time for people to hold on. Now, fortunately, it is not hard to make a profit with herbal products from the beginning, even if you counted, so even if you count in the cost of education, containers, you know, ingredients, blah, blah, blah, you're probably not even, you know, you're not even close to the realm of like the cost of opening a cafe or bookstore or restaurant or anything like that those can be you know, starting at 100,000 and go up. So that means that it's easier for you to recoup those cost. So remember that too, like you can you can sell there's so many ways that you can sell now that are very, very low cost. You're not just selling at it, you know, tradeshow during tradeshow months or things like that. So even when things get tough start thinking of a different avenue. So your your products on Etsy aren't selling, get your button the farmers market, go and talk to people own stores. Gosh, I didn't like talking to anybody. Oh my gosh, like I was so bad, right. And then I had two kids with me all the time, like, I don't know, it's completely nuts. Right. So I had two children in the shopping cart at this like health food store, my husband was at work, I had a box with my product. And I said, I really think you should carry these in the store. And they looked at me, I don't know, it must have been pity, right. And they did, they ended up carrying everything. And I had made a connection with the person and talked with the person. So sometimes you have to go all the way back old school face to face, on sometimes getting into these local and regional stores is gonna get you picked up by the big ones. So always remember, you don't know when your next thing is coming. You don't know who's going to see something and want it. So getting your products out locally is just as important as being on a platform like Etsy or I think I don't know, if some of the herbal platforms are still there. I think there used to be one called Poppy or something I don't even know if it's still around. But getting yourself out there and even if you're like, but there's nine gazillion people, right? Who have the same thing I have. Don't look at them. Just focus on you. Make your, your your profile, stunning, make your description amazing. If you have a friend who's like really good at copywriting, tackle them and ask them for help take them out for lunch and exchange, figure out a way right? And get your pictures on point. Have your photos be beautiful, and, and just really promote yourself and don't be afraid to tell people that you're there. You know, there's so many times when I would be selling a product and I would be like, gosh, you know, I just does anybody even want this. And then I would get this email like, this is the only thing that's ever helped my kids eczema, my baby's been in pain for years. This is what how I can't believe it. And it's like, I think at the time, their product was like six bucks, right? I even offered to like, give her the recipe. Because I was like if you've been going on with this forever, like, or I'll sell to you by the gallon or whatever, you know. And the reality is, is that sometimes when we start making those differences, I think she sent me hundreds of customers. I mean, I had a store that would order like, like $2,000 with a product from me a month and this was back in like 2005. And she just like loved, loved loved everything. And people would come into our store and she just be like selling them my my stuff. It was great. She was in Ohio. And you know, it's just, I didn't, I didn't, but I didn't know that that is what could have happened. And it wouldn't have if I hadn't just been doing the work and all the little ways. So when you do that kind of work in little ways, you're creating an herbal legacy. You're laying down a roadmap for people to find you. You can specialize. You can say I'm this kind of herbalist, that kind of herbalist, I am really skilled at helping this things or these kinds of people or whatever, you can totally do any of that. You can talk about, you know, where your passion comes from, who it connects you to what is your herbal legacy rooted in like, so who behind you? You know, I will straight up say, herbs were in my life, probably because the herbs that were in my grandparents, like were because they were this close to starving. And so you learn how to stay alive. So for me, it's always been kind of like, you know, my grandfather would talk about eating things under like fastener, you know, like, Oh, really? So but I think the thing is, is that we have to remember that we all have this connection. So tapping into that and being like, Okay, I'm not the only one starting this legacy. There were people before me, I'm bearing the torch now. And I'm changing the dynamic and my connection to the land and my family to continue this process. Is it through community gardens, is it through beautification of playgrounds? Is it through running, you know, doing plant walks in your community, there's all kinds of places where you can get involved in things that will eventually help your business or connect you to you know, if you're really into growing things and you volunteered the Botanical Gardens they often give away A there cuttings to the people that are volunteering there are working there. So then you can use that to propagate new things that maybe you're going to be offering your customers later. If you are a super skilled builder, and you love building and you love herbalism well, maybe part of your herbal legacy would be like really making a good functional greenhouse for people who want to grow certain kinds of herbs indoors, and really like expanding on that. So you get to use what you have to make something that you can, that can go for generations. I think that the the thing is, is that we're limited by our imagination. So when it comes time to create, there's really no, there's really nothing you can't like, put herbs into. I mean, the I mean, you'll sometimes see like herbal business logos on like, even like race cars and stuff nowadays, or soccer teams or, you know, stuff like that. So it's it's, I mean, I don't know, I mean, I guess it would be kind of funny if there was like, a harder verbs like race car. I don't know, I don't really watch racing. But you know, I mean, like, you know, why why not? Right. The with what I'm trying to say is, is that this is the kind of thing that can last a lifetime. This is like an $800 billion industry. I mean, that's like more money than some countries have for their GDP. So are eight again, 800 billion? Yeah. So it's something that is, there's no reason why you can't reap the benefits of this. Does anyone have any questions about anything with because I'm going to keep checking in with you guys, because we're almost done. So if you're thinking something, or if you want to know if something maybe is sustainable, or potential idea, if you you know if you wanted to you can put it in the chat if you don't want to say out loud if your art Oh, sorry. Yeah.

Speaker 4  42:25  
Um, first off, sorry about earlier. Oh, don't worry about it. I have son momager.

Speaker 1  42:38  
Oh, my gosh, no, no, the fact that someone like finds my voice annoying, like doesn't bug me at all. I raised two boys. Okay. I come from a family of five kids. I'm fine. So I'm gonna make you rich, though.

Speaker 4  42:55  
They better? So, okay, I have this. I don't know. I know. It's not a weird idea. But maybe it is. So I live in a very rural area. And a lot of people ironically, in the rural in the Super rural areas don't always reap the benefits of herbal solutions to their lives. And there's a lot of farmers as there's a lot of farmers and just people who work like on their feet, right. And, you know, firemen and all that. So, considering this. I just don't know how to make it. Concrete. I want to I want to do like a foot clinic, a donation based foot clinic. Where's

Speaker 1  43:47  
an herbalist who does that and New Orleans? Oh, wow. So if you Google that you make if you email me, I'll see if I can find their information. I actually, like did some collaborative kind of stuff with them years ago, they probably don't even remember me. Or maybe they took one of my classes. But yeah, so I think that's a brilliant idea. Okay, um, especially if you are like, licensed to do the, you know, different footy things or whatever. I definitely think that because a lot of farmers have like, venous insufficiency and stuff like that, which can affect your feet. There's a potential, you know, a lot of people have diabetes. I mean, farmers are pretty rough on their bodies, right? Yeah. And especially, especially, especially, you're in a rural area, so half of your fire department is probably volunteer, right. So they're farmers and then they go into a fire. Like, I think this is a brilliant idea. I think it's something that I think something that's something that could work. So

Speaker 4  44:52  
yeah, I just I don't know, I was like, I want it to be donation based. Um, I don't know if this is an unbiased fear but I feel like it's not like with with us with it being a rural area and a fairly low income rural areas like I don't know how sis how feasible it is to make it sustainable on donations only. But at the same time, I'm I am leery of charging a set price. Because, you know, there are nail salons out around that, you know, that do foot soaks or whatever, but I just don't know, I'm like, I don't have to have,

Speaker 1  45:32  
okay, people, people are uncomfortable Tonisha they just want to know how much something cost doesn't have to be expensive. Or you can also you can also make it like a you could do a sliding scale. Okay, right. Or you could make it you know, this is what it costs. And like, you know, and the reason why it's so sustainably priced, is because 10% of every product that's bought goes into investing in this, you know, keeping this option going for people. So, also getting people involved with paying for it, who aren't using the services. Okay. So if you have like a foot cream that people really like, or whatever you can say like 10% of the proceeds go to such such, you know, foot clinic, you know, like, I think you could really make that. And and Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. So then you have this like, amazing foot cream product, right? You can also talk to the local hospitals about stocking it in their gift shop. Because there I used to sell to hospital gift shops, and they actually contacted me. Because what goes on when you're in the hospital, what happens is your skin is so high. Yeah, horrible, right? Yeah. And so family members are always getting stuff from the gift shop, too, you know, or people are buying from the gift shop for themselves to keep their skin nice and soft. And we know that feet are so neglected. And I mean, that's why like, you know, pedicures are a gazillion dollar industry. So yeah, there are I think like from that there could be lots of ways you could go. You could even work with like a local knitter who does like merino wool socks or something like that and have those available. And explain the benefits. So if people have neuropathy, a lot of people really like wearing paint wool to help mitigate pain, right? Yeah, yeah. And so like, you have something available. And like a wool, that's good for the summertime. It's like a merino wool. So you could like actually, like, turn this into something where there's lots of streams of income coming in, based on the needs of your clients.

Speaker 4  47:54  
That I'm gonna keep all this information. I'm gonna email you. So you can see if you remember the New Orleans based

Speaker 1  48:02  
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Because I when I heard about that, they worked mostly with homeless and people who had like, uncontrolled diabetes, right? Yeah. And because for homeless people, the there's a lot of there's often a lot of foot problems, you know, frostbite and water, you know, stuff like that. And I just was like, that is the coolest thing I've ever heard. Like, I just thought that was like, the nicest day that someone I just thought was so nice. Anyways. I mean, like, I'm, like, starting to cry. Like, I've been having a glass of wine, but I haven't. I just thought it was really sweet. So I'm definitely, I definitely think that there's, so there's the there's the thing that you offer, and then there's all the things off of that that could come off with them. Okay. Yeah. Like, if you knew a woodworker, who could, like, make you some kind of like, what if they used a lathe? Like some kind of like foot rolling massager thing that people could use? I mean, there's all kinds of things that okay, you could sell all natural, like nail varnish for people who wanted to buy nail varnish but didn't want to buy the chemical stuff or, you know, there's like, there's all kinds of places you could go with this. You could have a lot of fun.

Unknown Speaker  49:26  
I think I'm gonna appreciate you

Speaker 1  49:29  
know, absolutely, ya know, what a cool idea. Thank you for sharing that with everyone. For sure. Does anybody else have anything? I'm not sure if someone nope, keep talking. Okay. Well, I mean, like, so the thing is, is that when Okay, so I think that was a good example, right? You have your core idea. And then you can start thinking about ways that you can connect it to Two things that are going on in your community services that are offered your, your, your public commitment, so your commitment to your community, you know, like, so businesses, you know, often, you know, make donations to, I always say the more money you make, the more you can give, like, that's always been my answer to people who are like, well, herbalist should make money and I'm like, but I can, I can make money in the form of donating to good things go further than if I give my time. Like, if I give a time, you're, you know, you're out to, you know, I'm out like 200 bucks for consultation, right. But if I donate that $200, that's buying, like, meals for kids in my community, like, I feel like that's a better use of money. So I think that the more you earn, the more you can give is like something you need to keep telling yourself, because that's part of your legacy to your, you know, like hardware observable school bought, like 200 winter coats one year, we just went in, and I cleared out the store, because I heard something that there like 200 children who didn't have jackets where I lived, and my brain went into, like, total spasm. And I was like, I can't deal with that. Like, there's no reason why these kids, these kids need Jack like, That's it, it was like, colder than normal winter where we lived. And we lived in the South. So if, you know, kids don't always have winter coats. Because it doesn't, you know, you're you know, you sit at 4050. But we were having like, 20s, like days of 20s. And so I filled up the back of my car, and then they were all being dropped off at the police station. And I swear, they must have thought I was just dropping them. Ladies, like, Do you need help? I'm like, No, I got, you know, but I mean, like, you know, and I could have turned that into something where, you know, they did a television, you know, thing or whatever I just opted not to because it was just one of, you know, it's one of those things I like this needs to happen now. Like, I don't want to, I don't care about what's going on. But I felt that was how my money went further. And I think that's a legacy thing. Like, so legacy is also about supporting and sustaining your community, not just your herbal community, you know, you can have it so your business for the next 50 years, you know, calls once a year and pays off school lunches. You know, that's a legacy. Or you can have a scholarship for someone who's interested. And, you know, learning bought me worst studying herbalism, or whatever that's, you know, that is something that you can do, that creates legacy that creates long time name recognition. But you're also you're also doing something that helps the community. So I think that's definitely like, we aren't there yet. In the herbal world, we're starting to see like, that kind of stuff. But it's usually like we're sponsoring this herbal conference. And I think that's great. There's nothing wrong with that. I've done that myself. Like, you know, there's nothing wrong with that, like spot being a sponsor or anything like that. I think it's also really important for the industry, if we start getting involved in our communities like other businesses are. So herbalism tends to a time to be insular and we only support like herbal II type stuffs. We don't we're not buying like, a herd of herbs bought football uniforms one year for a football team. And part of that was like they needed it. And that was, you know, that's something that I'm every single one of those kids. Now has a different idea of herbalist and what herbalist do. And it isn't just be, you know, and there's like 90 kids like involved. So like, the thing is, is that think outside of the box with your legacy to don't just keep it in the herbal world, because those are connections that you're going to make forever. So and those are kinds of things where people grow up, or people change jobs, and they're going to remember this kind of legacy connection. So definitely don't be afraid to venture into other things like go to a fancy Chamber of Commerce event and meet the other businesses in the area. You Lisa like people always will say to me, but but this kind of person doesn't like herbs. Well, that's not true at all. Like every there every walk of life. Every single income bracket. There are people who are into herbs, you know, people would always pay point I always be like, well, you know, I don't know, like rich people just always do this or that. And it's like, oh my gosh, like, no, no. Anytime you start to tell yourself, well, this isn't, you're wrong, there's always someone that you can connect with who will be into your work, and think that your work is fascinating. I mean, even if you went to a catalytic converter convention, right, you're gonna find someone there's and or so do not limit yourself that way. Because you never know where the next things coming from, you never know who's going to inspire you. And when you're going to make a product that's going to change the world. Because your world changers. Anytime we talk about making the world better, and making people feel better, and be healthier, and to feel better about what's going on in their lives, and more secure, we're changing the world, and doesn't have to be massive. You know, you can change the world, one person at a time. So definitely don't, don't give up. If it gets tough. Give us a call. Post in the student group. If you start getting afraid of like, what your next step is, then you know, connect. Because that's what we're here for. And we want you to be successful. And we want you to feel good about all of the things that you're bringing into the world. Does anybody else have anything real quick before we go?

Speaker 5  56:34  
Yes, sorry. Ah, yeah. Um, hello. Can you hear me? Yeah, this is Rita. Yeah. Thank you so much for your inspiring class. It's so wonderful. I'm so sorry. May I ask you a question? You know, if it's, if the answer is going to be no, it's okay. I, you know, I'm going to be totally fine. First of all, I want to also thank you for your amazing clinical, her biologist career that I finished. And it was so brilliant, so great. And what I'm now trying to do is trying to combine that, you know, Astro, basically the, you know, the astrology and herbology. Together, you know, and I will try to offer us, you know, six months course. So my question is, is it possible to advertise in the group or not really, you know, just know someone? No, is not yet. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yep,

Speaker 1  57:29  
it does anyone else, we just have to keep that to a limit, because it'll just it'll just become a marketplace. So definitely look, if you want to, if you have like a really cool product, like I asked a few times a year like to share your links. So definitely, when I do that, share your links, because I will share your links with my audience. Like I have no problems doing that. And they do that a few times a year. But if we just had it going all the time. I just don't think we'd ever get any good communication done. It would just be like a Facebook marketplace page.

Speaker 5  58:02  
No, no, he's totally okay. I'm totally fine. And you know, thank you for your honest you know, answer. Yeah.

Speaker 1  58:07  
Does anybody else have anything? I thought I heard some I do. I did. Perfect. Okay, so

Speaker 2  58:15  
my husband is not leaving me alone on this. He said, since we're on this subject for me to ask you this question. No far. I am a big elderberry person. I've had elderberries in my life since I can remember. And I grow them on my property. And my husband is trying to tell me that I should like dehydrate them, you know, because I have the big dehydrator or freeze dried them and try and sell them. I don't I don't think that would be very, I don't know profitable.

Speaker 1  58:46  
I think your husband's right. Oh, now now you look him in the eye right now and so you're not gonna hear that again. Okay. No, no, no, I think it could be a great business. Absolutely. People are always looking for elderberries. Always looking for elderberries. But also I mean, elderberries can be you know, you can serve them jam dry them right. Yeah. It'd be there's you know, their their food, their medicine, they can be used for you know, dyeing products, I mean, you can find you could make homemade like silk scarves that are you know, once you make your elderberry syrup and you have all this stuff left behind you can use that to dye silk and so if someone in your family does like batik or whatever, or you can do herbal herbal dyed scar, there's all kinds of stuff you can do. So I think he's absolutely a gazillion percent right. Okay, like cash crop there.

Speaker 2  59:50  
Wow, okay. Well, then I guess that is something that I will start looking into. You have this

Speaker 1  59:55  
on your property and it's been involved with you your whole life like you've always had involvement with this plant? Yes, this plant has been showing you your legacy this whole time.

Speaker 2  1:00:08  
Wow. Thank you. I never looked at it that way. It's just, it's just been a part of my life. And I don't look at it as a business venture. You know,

Speaker 1  1:00:20  
the, the number one thing a business has to do is solve a problem. Right? Right. And the simplest things, I mean, oh, I do think die in this book is genius. Thank you, Adele. But but so. So the simplest thing to do is to solve the simplest problems. So like, there's a there's the guy did the ShamWow towel, right? Like, seriously, it's like a microfiber towel guy became a billionaire. I mean, that's some genius stuff there. He proud he needed something that did something, and he made this something. So I think what your husband is suggesting is everything is there. You just need to take the next step. Okay,

Unknown Speaker  1:01:04  
thank you.

Speaker 1  1:01:07  
Yeah, definitely, definitely. I'm glad that I'm glad that he told you to ask because I do. Elderberry is a good product for that. I mean, it has it you know, it grows really well. It doesn't need tons and tons of stuff to keep it going. If they produce Well, it's a cash crop. So I would connect with your extension service. And see if they have any suggestions for because Eric classes for business stuff on that. And I think that your and a lot of these resources are free. So I would definitely check it out. What state are you in?

Unknown Speaker  1:01:45  
Tennessee?

Speaker 1  1:01:47  
Oh my gosh, yeah, you're gonna do awesome. Oh, you could even use like the dye and stuff for like cosmetics and stuff like that, or powders that could be used to color things. I mean, there's so many things you could do from the beginning part of the plant, all the way down to like the leftover waste. So there's definitely like a lot of different ways that you could go and make sure you're maximizing and getting everything you can out of it.

Speaker 2  1:02:16  
Okay, I will do that. I do take a lot of the waste and I make a chapstick out of it. Yeah, see, you're already there. Okay. Wow, I never thought of all of that. Oh, my gosh, sometimes it's

Speaker 1  1:02:29  
just talking and it brings out all the different ideas, you know?

Speaker 2  1:02:33  
Yes. Well, I appreciate this. Thank you so much. I'm gonna go to my husband. Okay. I didn't cheat.

Speaker 1  1:02:45  
Exactly. Does anyone else have any questions or want to say anything? All right, then I agree with Kathleen, that plant does have your spirit in it. Okay, so I'm gonna close this out. I hope that this gave you what you were looking for. And I'll post the link in the what's covered in the student group. And I'll eventually get it up into the the bonus classroom too. If you come up with something later or you're like, I was too nervous to say this out loud in front of other people connect with me. We always have a few people who email me after the fact and want to ask something. So definitely feel you know, can always do that. So have a wonderful weekend. I know where I am. It's starting to get warm and we're starting to are starting to have fun with that. So I hope wherever you are, it's going to be beautiful this weekend. Thanks so much everyone for attending and have a great weekend.